Ben Gray/AP Photo
Voters sign in at a polling place in Tucker, Georgia, on Tuesday, January 5.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA – Georgia voters broke records on Tuesday for turnout in the Senate runoff elections. The massive, half-a-billion-dollar investment in television ads, radio spots, mailers, texts, and phone calls has pushed Georgians to the polls—if not to the edge of their patience—since last November.
Before Election Day, more than three million voters had already cast their ballots, about two million people visiting early-voting sites and one million more utilizing the absentee-ballot process through the mail or with drop boxes. Final turnout won’t be known until the polls close, military ballots are counted, and ballots with any technical problems are cured (that deadline is Friday, January 8).
At the polls, lines throughout Georgia were minimal. In November, the average wait time was three minutes on Election Day, and for most of the day on January 5, the state was down to one minute. This is a vast improvement for Georgia’s election system from its June primary, which was plagued by technical difficulties, long lines, and access issues with its alternative options to in-person Election Day voting.
There were long lines during Georgia’s advance-voting period. In the suburbs around Atlanta like Cobb County, it took up to two hours to vote on some days, because there were fewer early-voting locations than during the general election. But for the most part, the convenience of early-voting options has cured Georgia of its easily observable election malfunctions.
Despite how well this election was run, it’s possible results may take several days. In addition to the millions of votes already cast, projections suggest there may be an additional million more votes from in-person Election Day voting. And it will take some time to tabulate these results. Both Senate races are anticipated to be decided by just thousands of votes.
On Tuesday night, Republicans are likely to find themselves ahead as smaller, rural, and more Republican-leaning counties are able to more quickly count their ballots. It’s also expected that Tuesday’s voters are more likely to lean Republican compared to the voters who returned ballots before Election Day.
There are also some inconsistencies between counties and how they report results. Some counties will release Tuesday’s count after polls close and then add their early in-person and then by-mail results. And Fulton County, Georgia’s most populous county (encompassing metro Atlanta), is already lagging behind when it comes to counting ballots that arrived before Election Day.
Absentee by-mail (or by drop box) ballots were allowed to be processed as they were received. This means the outside envelopes could be opened, the voter’s signature could be checked, and the voter’s address could be verified ahead of Election Day. This is the opposite policy to other swing states like Pennsylvania, which had its presidential result delayed for days because poll workers were barred from touching ballots ahead of Election Day.
It took ten days before Joe Biden was declared the victor in Georgia, but these runoffs are expected to take a fraction of that time.
Once the results are tabulated, and Georgia’s airwaves declutter their political-ad overload, the Secretary of State’s Office and Board of Elections will still be occupied with 2020’s election season.
Over the weekend, President Trump called Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to dispute the validity of Georgia’s election results, and asked for Raffensperger to “find” votes so Trump could win the state. Election officials have invested great time and effort combating Trump’s claims about election fraud, including in a point-by-point press conference on Monday.
There’s now an official call for Raffensperger and the State Board of Elections to investigate. David Worley, a Democrat on the board, said in a letter to the board that Trump’s phone call may have broken state law for conspiracy to commit election fraud.
In late November 2020, Secretary of State Raffensperger also opened a partisan investigation into progressive organizations the New Georgia Project, America Votes, Vote Forward, and Operation New Voter Registration Georgia. Organizers believe this may be used more as a distraction for these groups ahead of the runoff than an investigation into serious violations.
These investigations, in addition to the hyper-partisan tenor of this campaign season, make clear that while the election process is improving in Georgia and results will come soon, the polarization is far from over.
